Underground Army (1939-1945)
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| The Underground Army (1939-1945) | |
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On 26 September 1939 an aeroplane from Romania arrived in the besieged capital of Warsaw carrying Major Edmund Galinat, an officer for special tasks and an envoy of the Supreme Commander. He brought special orders pertaining to the creation of an underground organization to fight against the occupier. On the next day such an organization was created and was given the name: Service for the Victory of Poland (Służba Zwycięstwu Polsce/SZP). General Michał Tokarzewski-Karaszewicz was nominated as its commander. In September 1939 the operational staff of the organization was formed, and a civilian commissioner was nominated. This followed from the fact that the work was to be carried out in two directions: military and civilian. The Chief Political Council was formed, consisting of representatives of political parties which were resuming their activities underground. The Statute of the Service for the Victory of Poland proclaimed it as an underground army, subordinate to the Polish government, standing above political parties and unifying the whole of society, in order to fight the enemy.
The situation in the country was very difficult, as part of the Polish territory had been incorporated into the Third Reich, over a half was occupied by the USSR and of the remaining part a so-called General Governorship was created. Yet in September 1939 over 10,000 Poles were murdered in mass executions; in October in the Pomeranian district alone around 20,000 people were executed.
In spite of this, underground organizations were spontaneously coming into existence throughout the entire Polish land, created either on the basis of political parties or as transformed military units. It is estimated that by the end of 1939 around 250 such organizations were formed. The Service for the Victory of Poland initiated the process of consolidating them into one organization, encompassing the entire (former) country. In time almost all of them were incorporated or subordinated themselves to the SZP, which was later transformed into the Union of Armed Fight (Związek Walki Zbrojnej) and eventually into the Home Army (Armia Krajowa - AK). The most important of these constituents were: the Peasant Batallions (Bataliony Chłopskie) and the National Armed Forces (Narodowe Siły Zbrojne). The only exception to this rule were the communist organizations, which formed the People's Guard (Gwardia Ludowa), later transformed into the People's Army (AL).
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The Polish Government in London was represented in the occupied Poland by a delegation of the Government of the Country, organized into departments, which were equivalent to ministries in the government, as well as by the Leadership of Civil Warfare (Kierownictwo Walki Cywilnej), organizing civilian resistance of society against the occupier.
On the order of the German occupier, all Polish secondary schools and higher education institutions (universities and polytechnics) were closed down. The curriculum of elementary schools was reduced, several subjects were removed, such as geography, history and Polish language. In order to counteract this, an underground education system was established. In Warsaw alone, 36 secondary schools were operating, and it is calculated that during the entire occupation around 100,000 young people attended underground secondary schools, while around 10,000 studied at underground higher education institutions. For example, during the occupation, the underground Warsaw Technical University (Politechnika Warszawska) issued 186 Master of Science degrees, 18 doctoral degrees and 14 post-doctoral (habilitation) degrees.
During that period all the textbooks had to be printed secretly, teachers and lecturers were facing certain death penalty if arrested, and possibly the students as well; at best a concentration camp awaited them.
In order to counteract the omnipresent Nazi propaganda (the publication of Polish books was forbidden, whilst possession of a radio meant one risked the death penalty), printing of underground publications was initiated, with the aim to inform society about what was happening in the country and abroad and thus support the spirit of resistance.
During the occupation approx. 2000 titles of periodicals appeared in Poland, printing runs of some of them were in the order of tens of thousands. There were even among them titles dedicated exclusively to literature and art.Apart from publications in Polish, materials in German were also published (Action "N"). These publications, pretending to be the voice of German opposition were edited so perfectly, that the German authorities indeed considered some of them to be a manifestation of German opposition.
Polish underground helped not only Poles to survive. From 1942 numerous attempts were made to help the Jews as well as Soviet prisoners of war, kept in camps on Polish soil (their status was close to that of concentration camp prisoners). After the capitulation of Italy the same applied to Italian soldiers imprisoned in many camps in occupied Poland. It is worth noting that the Italians (after the Soviets) represented the second national group subjected to the cruellest of Nazi crimes. For example: the entire Italian garrison of Lwów (a city in the south-east of pre-war Poland), numbering around 2000 soldiers, was slaughtered. The most important role of the actions of the Polish underground movement was in armed conflict. The first armed troops existed as early as September 1939 and originated from regular units of the Polish Army, which had not laid down their arms and had continued fighting against the occupier in a partisan form. These troops existed both on territory occupied by the Germans (troops of Major Henryk Dobrzański "Hubal") as well as in the area under Soviet occupation (troops of Lt. Col. Jerzy Dąbrowski). Some partisan troops in the Soviet occupied area existed until the German aggression towards the USSR in 1941.
Gradually, the partisan movement encompassed the entire Polish territory. Actions of the underground also engulfed the German and Soviet controlled areas beyond the territory of the 2nd Polish Republic (i.e. the borders before the outbreak of the war). Sabotage troops of the Home Army (AK) carried out a series of bomb attacks on the railway transports in Germany, and even on the grounds of railway stations in Berlin and Breslau (presently Wrocław). In western Soviet territory Home Army soldiers, as part of the "Wachlarz" operation ("Fan") carried out around 80 combat actions, aimed at German railway transport.
The main effort of the Polish underground was, however, concentrated on Polish soil. An "on-going combat" was carried out by special troops of the Home Army (Leadership of the Sabotage - Kedyw) (Kierownictwo Dywersji - Kedyw). In the years 1943-1944 they liquidated over 2000 enemy agents, took several hundred prisoners, derailed over 700 military transports. One of the most important targets was the railway network. Apart from single attacks, also coordinated actions were carried out such as "Wieniec 1" and "Wieniec 2", which led to blocking of the entire railway junctions. Another, equally important task of the resistance movement, was pronouncing sentences in the underground courts: on traitors, collaborators, or officers of the German terror apparatus. One of the best known actions of this kind was the liquidation of the Higher SS and Police Fuehrer for the Warsaw district, SS-Brigadefuehrer Franz Kutschera.
The underground Polish Scout Union (Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego - ZHP) carried out actions of "minor sabotage". Scouts for instance tore down enemy flags and put Polish ones in their place, or wrote anti-German graffiti on the walls. Older ones later on joined the "Kedyw" troops.
Another important task of partisan troops constituted the defence of rural population against deportations (in the Zamość district) or against extermination by Ukrainian nationalists (Wołyń). When referring to the Polish armed underground it is difficult to present precise numbers. It is estimated that it numbered up to 500,000 soldiers, of whom 110-120.000 people served in partisan (or forest) troops (1944). According to German data, on the grounds of General Governorship alone, during the period between December 1943 and March 1944, over 20,000 acts of sabotage and combat actions were carried out. In March and April 1944 alone, German police formations lost 2,300 men in fighting against partisans. In order to take control of the situation, German authorities were forced to dispatch to occupied Poland significant forces of Wehrmacht and police formations as well as auxiliary formations or SS troops.
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One of the largest operations of Polish underground was the "Burza" ("Storm") action. This codename was attributed to armed manifestation of the Home Army troops during German withdrawal from the eastern lands of the Polish Republic. The military actions being part of this action were carried out with various intensity from January until November of 1944 and in a vestigial form even in January 1945. These operations were commenced to re-create the former regular units of the Polish Army, stationing in the given areas before the outbreak of the war - on the basis of the partisan troops and demobilized members of the underground. They immediately joined the combat with the Germans; the Wołyń district was the first one to commence regular operations (January 1944).
Some actions were carried out jointly with the Soviet Army, for example the liberation of Wilno (7-13 July), Lwów (22-27 July) as well as of series of other cities in the east of Poland. After seizing them, the civilian Polish authorities disclosed themselfes and the organization of the administrative apparatus commenced. It met a decided counteraction of the Soviets, which disarmed and arrested the Home Army' soldiers as well as members of Polish administration tied with the Polish government in the exile. Althought the main formations of the Home Army never engaged themselfes in fight with the Red Army, they were considered hostile and their soldiers were deported to camps for prisoners of war or to the Soviet equivalents of German concentration camps. All in all, until January 1945 25 - 30.000 Home Army soldiers were arrested and deported. According to some sources arrests and deportations covered as many as 80.000. These arrests continued even after dissolving of this organization.
Apart from combat actions, equally important was the intelligence work carried out by the Polish underground. One of the most spectacular actions of the Polish underground's intelligence was working out the construction (design) of the V-1 and V-2 missiles, as well as the localization of the facilities connected with their production. The first reports of the Polish intelligence referring to the Peenemuende missile centre have reached the British as soon as in 1940. This report, as well as the next one from 1942, was ignored. Only in the second half of 1942 the British intelligence bacame interested in information handed over by the Poles. As a consequence of this data on the nights of 16 and 17 August 1942 the entire Peenemuende centre was bombed by approx. 600 allied bombers. All personnel and equipment that survived the air raid was moved beyond the range of the allied Air Force, to a firing range near the town of Mielec in occupied Poland. This facility was, however, also disclosed by the Home Army' intelligence. As a result of the constant surveillance of the range's vicinity was possible to ascertain one of the places where a missile fell and a specimen was recovered before the arrival of the Germans. Disassembled, it was examined by a team of Polish scientists and the results of the examination along with numerous parts were transferred by plane from occupied Poland to London. The V-2 (then - the most state of the art weapon) was no longer a mystery for the allies.
The work of the Polish intelligence was highly appreciated by the intelligence services of the allied countries; e.g. British Intelligence Service reported to its superiors that Polish intelligence "is the best source of information as far as the Ordre de Bataille in the east is concerned".
The political situation was however changing unfavourably from the point of view of the Home Army's leadership. The Soviets soon seized and effectively occupied over a half of Polish territory and were establishing their own, communist authorities, they demonstrated hostility towards the Home Army' soldiers as well as in reference to people representing the exile Polish government in the country. In light of these facts General Okulicki took the decision to dissolve the organization. He himself took leadership of the anticommunist, secret organization "Nie" ("Not").
The arresting of Home Army's leadership - 16 people, including the commanders, V-ce Prime Minister of the government and his three deputies as well as the members of the Council of National Unity - the underground parliament became a symbol of the Soviet hostility towards the authorities of the underground Poland. These leaders were inclined to recognize the Yalta accords (referring to the post-war borders and the division of the areas of interests). When they arrived for a talk with a representative of Soviet authorities, in Pruszków near Warsaw, they war arrested - on the 28 March 1945, and transported to Moscow. Judged in June 1945 for an alleged collaboration with the Germans (!) they war sentenced for imprisonment. Both the deputy commandant of the Home Army - Gen. Leopold Okulicki and the Delegate of the Government for the Country - Jan Stanisław Jankowski, died in Soviet prisons.
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(1895-1944) During the First World War he served in the Polish Legions and from 1918 in the Polish Army. A theoretician of military sciences, in the 1939 campaign he commanded the Warsaw Armoured - Motorized Brigade. From 30 June 1940 he headed the Union of Armed Fight (ZWZ) and the Home Army (AK). He was arrested on 30 June 1943 in Warsaw and sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. In 1944 he received the rank of General of Division. After the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, at the beginning of August 1944, he was murdered. He was decorated, amongst others, with the Virtuti Militari - 4th and 5th class, with the French Honorable League and posthumously - with the American League of Merit medal. |
(1898-1946) During the First World War he served in the Polish Legions, in the Polish Army from 1918. During the 1939 campaign he took part in the defence of Warsaw and then moved on to underground activity. From October 1940 he was the commandant of the Union for Armed Fight (ZWZ) in respect to the territories occupied by the Soviets. Was arrested in January 1941 and was imprisoned until the 12th of August 1941. Then he was released and became the chief of staff of the Polish Army in the USSR, also commander of a division. On the 22 of May 1944 he was parachuted to Poland and became the deputy of the Home Army's (AK) chief. He was then nominated to the rank of General of Brigade. After the collapse of the Warsaw Uprising he became the commander of the Home Army as well as the commandant of the "Nie" ("Not") organization. On 27 March 1945 he was again arrested by the Soviets and sentenced in Moscow for 10 years of imprisonment. Died on 24 December 1946 in a Soviet prison. He was decorated with Virtuti Militari crosses - of 4th and 5th class and with the American League of Merit medal. |
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The Home Army
Called into being on the 27th of September 1939 as the Service for the Victory of Poland. On the 13th November 1939 it was transformed into the Union for the Armed Fight and on 14th February 1942 - into the Home Army (AK). The Home Army's Main Command was created, and specific areas were subordinated to it, a lower level represented districts and a lower one yet: numerous regions and posts. They encompassed the entire territory of the Polish Republic, as well as part of the USSR, Hungary and the Reich. The following districts were among those subordinated to jurisdiction of the Main Command: "Berlin" (i.e. Germany) and "Liszt" (Hungary). After the incorporation of many smaller underground organizations the Home Army reached the number of its soldiers amounting to 380.000. During the period 1941-1944 its troops blew up 38 bridges, derailed or burned 1175 trains, damaged over 19.000 railway cars, burned 272 military depots, seriously damaged 4326 military cars. Only in the years 1943-1944 its soldiers liquidated over 2000 agents of the enemy. Commandants: - Gen. Michał Tokarzewski-Karaszewicz (27 Sept. - 13 Nov. 1939), - Gen. Kazimierz Sosnkowski - commandant of the Union for the Armed Fight in France and Great Britain (13 Nov. 1939 - 18 June 1940), - Gen. Stefan Rowecki (30 June 1940 - 30 June 1943), - Gen. Tadeusz Komorowski (17 July 1943 - 2 Oct. 1944), - Gen. Leopold Okulicki (2 Oct. 1944 - 19 Jan. 1945). The Home Army has been dissolved on 19th January 1945. |
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